slug pellets

[bazil]

ok....so im growing some peppers as an experiment ......my dad being a kind old sort thought hed help out without asking me first.....i awoke today to find an infestation of slug pellets

i dont like the idea of slug pellets much......and tried to tell him off......its impossible to tell my dad off...it really is

whats everyones opinion on pellets?

[albert onglebod]

I tried just egg shells and lost a lot of plants so I decided, I'd rather buy slug pellets and have some veg than love the slugs but have no veg...

[bazil]

are the pellets safe though......cant the horrid toxin end up in the food chain?

[Tinks]

hi, i dont love the slugs, in fact i positively hate 'em but i feel uncomfortable about using the pellets because birds and hedgehogs eat the slugs and might get poisoned too. in fact i was having this conversation with one of the men at the allotment (he being pro-pellets) and he suggested instead of wasting perfectly good beer in my beer traps i put pellets in there and then bury the slugs which does seem like a plan but i'm still not 100% sure though I am getting a bit down about losing so many perfectly good plants and produce to the scum of the insect world...it is indeed a tricky one and one i'd like to know the solution to too!!
tinks

[Andy Hamilton]

It is indeed a problem I take it you have seen this for some ideas. Basically beers traps on their own will not work, egg shells on there own won't either you have to do as many things as posible. The most important thing to do is ensure that the habitat for slugs are not around, no long grass, no bits of rubbish left around you plot. Keep it all as cluttr free as posbile.

I also found that my plants nearest to the two rows of garlic don't have any slugs on them.

Pellets is a big no no, have a look at this. We can tell your dad off if you want

[bazil]

i had thought about the other wildlife.....my main concern was me though(soz folks....i know its shameful...dont wanna use weird chemical stuff that im not sure of)...i really believe that with good management all creatures can be beneficial....so thus the keeping everything tidy is a good step!
i heard that mint is a good partner crop to keep off slugs as they dont like it....but dont quote me.....cos im not sure

the pellets my dad used contain "bitrex" which is a bittering agent to make them unpallatable to other mammals....hmmmm......i have a bit of a taste for bitter....im not so sure if that would work.

ps i like the weird feelers slugs and snails have...theyre well cool...i used to touch them wen i was little

[wulf]

Slugs and snails, while seen as the bane of a gardener's life, do have a part to play - they often feed on decaying matter, helping to break it down and they are also food for other creatures.

To grow organically and working with nature rather than against it, I think you've got to accept that you will suffer some slug and snail damage. If you can work in two directions at once - minimising it by keeping the gastropod population down and making the environment less friendly for them and spreading the damage by growing lots of crops - you should still end up with some yield.

For example, when you thin seeds out, don't discard the thinnings but plant them around the main crop. Some will die, some will survive and they will take a small share of the goodness and moisture of the soil (so keep that well topped up). However, they'll also be juicy little offerings to distract the slugs from your main crop and an easier location from which to pick them off.

Also, don't forget that many things that are slug damaged are not ruined beyond repair. My radishes have suffered a lot of small holes caused by the micro-slugs that live in my raised bed (they never get the chance to mature but the babies keep coming from somewhere). However, in most cases, they just need a good scrub and perhaps some cutting back on the flesh and the radishes are then perfectly edible.

Wulf

[Millie]

I hate them, but from a parental POV! I want my 2 year old to enjoy our allotment with us, and be free to roam about our plot within reason. Shes learning to be careful about the plants, watering etc. Imagine my horror at finding she had been to the edge of the plot next door, and was holding loads of little blue pellets! I nearly had heart failure. I dont like these poisons at the best of times, and certainly not where an animal or child could ingest them

I plan to use natural solutions to get rid of them. My OH favours the squish em method

[bazil]

yeh.......the manufaturer says "we colouered them birght blue to ward off mammals from eating them"......shame they didnt think on the fact that kids love bright colours

squish em method?.....the kids or the slugs? i have some naughty wee girls across the way who i caught trying to have the heads off my sunflowers with sticks....annoyed i was....still...my dad did bark at them...and they dissapeared in a flash....classic biological control via phytoseiulus oldmannus

[Millie]

the kids or the slugs?

the slugs and snails. I hate slugs, but I kinda like the snails!

[WitchypooNo2]

last year we went mad with the coffee grounds and had veryfew probs with SLugs. This year was a little late getting going and I went out to find that DH had cover out beautiful organic plot in bloomin slug pellets!!! So has he sucessfully contaminated what was once an organic plot? Also the bloke next door decided to help us with our weed problem?? (we have a fence round out plot thats heavy with bind weed, its allowed to grow there but anywhere else and it gets pulled up) so he emptied the rest of his heavy duty weed killer over it

[bazil]

bind weed may be nasty...but weeds also play an important part in the ecosystem

you have to ask yourself ,what is a weed?

i would say a weed is an incredibl plant that has vigour and does better than other plants......exept knotweed....which should be eradicated most probobly

as for the guy that sprayed weedkiler on your side....id suggest you chase him about with the poo stick till he learns his lesson

http://www.howtomakeapoostick.com


kidding

its not a real link....i wish it was

[Wombat]

[Shirley]

I'm going back to bed... I clicked on the link

Late night last night watching that brilliant but incredibly sad film... pay it forward. Sobs... sniff.

Pooh sticks... I love playing pooh sticks over a bridge... anyone else???

[ina]

Pooh sticks... I love playing pooh sticks over a bridge... anyone else???

Please enlighten a poor dumb ferener - what is pooh sticks?

Need to add: I hate it when "kind" neighbours and family members take it upon them to sort out your "problems"! I've experienced several cases like that myself, from the neighbour who proudly pointed out that he'd tidied up the wild bits around the fruit bushes (which had been left wild to provide shelter for beneficial insects), to the really nasty neighbours of a market garden where I worked who dumped "chemical" fertiliser all over a potato field, which made the crop non-organic - a real loss of money, plus it took two years for the field to become classed as organic again - and then got workmen to uproot the bramble hedge along the field edge, on my bosses land, for no better reason than they didn't like it? - or what? That case went to court, and they had to replace the brambles... But still, the damage was done, and no brambles for a few years.